South Korean President Park Geun-hye vowed to make the DPRK pay a corresponding price over the nuclear test, which Seoul and the global society had repeatedly warned against.
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North Korea declared it had nuclear weapons in 2003, and conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.
North Korean nuclear tests worry Washington and others because each new blast is seen as pushing North Korea’s scientists and engineers closer to their goal of an arsenal of nuclear-tipped missiles that can reach the U.S.
“We will continue to protect and defend our allies in the region, including the Republic of Korea”, he said, “and will respond appropriately to any and all North Korean provocations”.
Reuters reported earlier today that in December North Korea tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile.
United Nations strengthens sanctions and North Korea responds by withdrawing from six-party nuclear disarmament talks.
State Department spokesman John Kirby: “While we can not confirm these claims at this time, we condemn any violation of U.N. Security Council Resolutions and again call on North Korea to abide by its worldwide obligations and commitments…”
In Vienna, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation said the magnitude was very similar to 2013.
However, the North could have experimented with a “boosted” bomb that uses some nuclear fusion fuel along with more conventional uranium or plutonium fuel, said Jaiki Lee, a professor of nuclear engineering at Seoul’s Hanyang University.
Because of the way that they are made, hydrogen bombs are usually much more powerful than their atomic counterparts.
Watching the announcement on big screens, people were filmed applauding and shedding tears of emotion.
Beijing is Pyongyang’s key provider of aid and trade but relations have become more strained in recent years, in part because of North Korea’s persistence with its nuclear programme in the face of worldwide condemnation.
Some analysts say the North hasn’t likely achieved the technology needed to manufacture a miniaturized warhead that could fit on a long-range missile capable of hitting the USA mainland.
The U.S. Geological Service reported that a magnitude-5.1 natural disaster occurred 30.4 miles from the city of Kilju, North Korea, where the country’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site is located. Detonating such a weapon underground should be enough to cause a huge quake – but the impact was on a scale that could have been generated by an atomic bomb, and may have been less powerful than the one dropped in Hiroshima.
KCNA/REUTERS North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) watches a firing contest of the KPA artillery units at undisclosed location in this photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang on Tuesday.
The surprise test was personally ordered by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and came just two days before his birthday.
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South Korea’s intelligence agency said the device may not have been a hydrogen nuclear bomb, but an atomic bomb, according to Yonghap news agency.
